A fomer Continental CEO Calls It a Sucker's Bet

Surf Air started service between Burbank and San Carlos, Calif., on Wednesday, charging customers $1,650 a month, no matter how many trips between the two cities they take. The airline plans to expand service to other California cities later this year and to Las Vegas in 2014, NBC News notes.

The airline’s CEO and founder, Wade Everly, says that Surf Air has been called “the Netflix (NFLX) of air travel.” He says that Surf Air’s service saves travelers two hours each time they fly by avoiding the lines and airport procedures associated with commercial carriers.

About 150 customers have signed up for the service so far. Surf Air has received inquiries from 4,500 other potential customers.

Skeptics about. Gordon Bethune, the former CEO of Continental Airlines called Surf Air a “very highly speculative investment” and quoted P.T. Barnum’s famed observation that there is “a sucker born every minute.”

Surf Air has attracted $11 million in funding from venture capitalists and says its core consumers will be CEOs and startup founders with salaries around $300,000 annually.